Project

AECOstore: a web-based ecosystem for the existing building stock

Acronym
AECOstore
Code
3S040919
Duration
01 November 2019 → 31 October 2023
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Information retrieval and web search
  • Engineering and technology
    • Sustainable building
    • CAAD and digital architecture
Keywords
ecosystem
 
Project description

An estimated 80% of the residential building stock in Flanders was built before 1990. At the current rate renovation of old buildings take place, our ecological ambitions for 2050 will only be reached if the total number of renovation projects is tripled and the efficiency within these projects and afterwards drastically rises. Known for the productivity gains they brought in construction of new buildings, digital building techniques have a lot of potential for existing buildings as well. However, for efficient digitisation of existing buildings, the technology stack of the current industry does not always suffice, in terms of collaboration, interdisciplinarity, uncertainties and more. In this project, we aim to address these challenges by integrating digital renovation projects in a Web context. This concept of ‘Linked Building Data’ (LBD) is internationally regarded as ‘the final level of building digitisation’. Our target is use existing and new research to set up an online ecosystem for a shared, Linked Data project environment. This means each project has its own distributed online graph, and a virtually unlimited number of microservices, accessible through an ‘AECO app store’ (Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations), can use this data. The proposed ecosystem will enable a network of such modular apps, to address virtually any construction-related topic throughout the entire Life Cycle: from management and simulation to automated rule checking.